We need change!

 

Hello my name is Patricia Roosa and I am currently serving life in prison for a murder I did not commit. I am in prison in Florida due to the "Felony Murder rule". 

 

A mandatory life sentence in prison without parole for loaning a friend your car? Not in the good old U-S-of-A, you say? Perhaps only in the United States would be more accurate… Most people are unaware someone can be sentenced to life for a murder that someone else committed. Florida’s “felony-murder” statute permits a person to be held liable for a murder committed by a co-defendant, even if they were not present when it occurred or the killing was accidental. Making matters worse, people of color are disproportionately convicted under these flawed laws. The Florida Legislature has an important legal reform bill introduced for a vote that would correct this injustice.

 

I am currently serving out my life sentence at Lowell Correctional Institution where I have been for the past 16 years. My offense took place when I was 19 years old. I was Involved in a robbery and while I take full responsibility for everything I have done, I can not take responsibility for things I did not do. My then boyfriend took it into his own hands and made the decision on his own to murder an innocent woman. Under Florida's law I was deemed a Menace to society and given a Natural Life sentence for my involvement in the crime.  I am not a Menace to society and I do not have any prior convictions. What I am is a survivor to a young life of abuse by the hands of My then boyfriend in which I did not know how to escape. 

If you would like to know more about me:

At he age of 14, I moved to Florida from New York with my Family. I met a boy at that time and fell in love. I thought it was love but it became an unhealthy type of love that some young girls experience, the type that seeks approval, the kind that leads to poor choices and in my case the type that to a tragedy. 

He was a criminal and I was a young girl that had never experienced this type of "love" before but he knew that and used that to his advantage. It wasn't until many years later that I could identify this. 

I participated in a crime and although I should have been stronger and said no. I tried to be strong before and walk away but it always ended up with me getting black eyes from him.  

There is not a moment that goes by that I do not think of the victim and her family of the crime. I regret ever going along with my then boyfriend. I never though that one wrong choice would ever lead to me spending the rest of my life in Prison. 

I have spent the last 16 years in prison bettering myself. I have obtained my GED and I am currently enrolled as the only (lifer) in Cosmetology where I am learning to do hair, make up, and everything else that comes with being a licensed cosmetologist. 

Getting into this class was not an easy task I had to fight very hard to be considered for this class because as a Lifer the chances to higher education are very slim. We are always the last option to be ever be considered for a class. However I wanted to better myself and decided to speak with the warden on numerous occasions with my request. Eventually I was allowed into the program and I have been getting very good grades in there and learning which was and is very important to me.

 

I am asking for a change to take place about the Felony Murder rule. There are so many young adults who committed the same mistake as I did and are in prison for the same crime as myself. We should not be held responsible for the actions of another person. 

There have been others states like California to change this rule, California State Sen. Josh Becker, who introduced the bill, said in an interview with Injustice Watch his colleagues aimed to balance between punishing people for participating in serious crimes and hitting defendants with sentences that are unreasonably long given their role in the offense. “We’re going to show that there’s consequences for people who commit serious offenses, but at the same time, we want to be smart about it and make sure we’re not locking people up for much longer than it’s helpful for society,” Becker said. who have changed the Felony Murder Rule. If this rule shall change there are so many lives that can be changed by this. 

For Example:

Gerald Berry is serving a life sentence for murder, even though he didn’t kill anyone. Gerald Berry is serving a life sentence for murder, even though he didn’t kill anyone.

 

We are asking for the state of Florida to revise our unfair felony murder rule. For example, Hawaii, Kentucky, Massachusetts and Michigan have legislatively abolished the rule. Both Pennsylvania and Illinois have bills under consideration. In February 2019, California substantially narrowed that state’s felony murder law to eliminate all but “major” felony participants with “reckless disregard” for human life. Those convicted under the unfair, prior felony-murder rule were permitted re-sentencing for the related crimes they admittedly committed.